Honest question: How is it that these people have, not just a soapbox to spout their nonsense from, but national coverage? There was a time when people like this were rightly considered fringe, whackos with wierd theories that don't seem to make any common sense whatsoever. What changed to make these people the dominant voice?They're not even remotely "the dominant voice".
"Conspiracy theory professor who said Sandy Hook tragedy never happened NOW concedes some 'people undoubtedly died'"I swore I'd never link to The Daily Mail, but that headline is so perfectly Onion-esque, I just couldn't resist.
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.posted by zombieflanders at 10:19 AM on January 16 [21 favorites]
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
MuffinMan:And most of them stink.tl,dr: opinions are like arseholes; everyone has one.
Q: That new definition [for assault rifles] covers my gun. Is the government going to take it away, or force me to sell it?Which pretty much puts lie to your other conveniently evidence-free conspiracy theory about the widespread unnamed (of course) "people who work on Obama's team" who have supposedly proposed confiscation laws of which NY's was supposedly an example.
A: No.
[...]
Q: What about ammunition magazines?
A: Before the law’s passage, a magazine capable of holding 10 or more rounds was unlawful, but any magazine manufactured before 1994 was exempt. Law enforcement officials said this grandfathering provision made the ban difficult to enforce, and it was eliminated in the current law. Now those magazines are banned, but anyone who has one with a “reasonable belief” that it was lawful and disposes of it within 30 days of being notified by a law enforcement official that it is now illegal won’t be guilty of violating the law. Otherwise, it is a Class A misdemeanor charge.
If you already have a magazine that holds up to 10 rounds, you can lawfully keep it, but you can’t load it with more than seven rounds.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney condemned the NRA's ad as "repugnant and cowardly," telling CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett, "Most Americans agree that a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight. But to go so far as to make the safety of the President's children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly."posted by ericb at 11:05 AM on January 16 [9 favorites]
And Mr. Obama's former press secretary and senior adviser, Robert Gibbs, also minced no words in reaction, calling the ad "disgusting on many levels" on MSNBC.
"It's also just stupid," said Gibbs. "This reminds me of an ad that somebody made at about 2 o'clock in the morning after one too many drinks, and no one stopped it in the morning."
You could also sell the gun to a licensed retailer in the state, or someone out of state within the next year, provided you comply with the laws in that state and notify officials there. Otherwise, you will not be able to transfer the weapon — even to a family member.Right, so as I said, New Yorkers who owned until-yesterday-legal magazines will be forced to dispose of them - which is being forced to sell or worse. I thought it was a year, apparently it was 30 days, which, again is even /worse/. And people are unable to pass their weapons to even their children or their spouse - which means that they are, in fact, forced to sell the weapon in their lifetime - according to the very link you posted.
Although the school distanced itself from Tracy, who has also doubted the official versions of the JFK assassination, 9/11 and even the more recent movie massacre in Aurora, Colo., Newtown First Selectman E. Patricia Llodra said the conspiracy theorist has no business drawing a taxpayer-funded paycheck.Our first selectman is basically our mayor. Her last question cuts to the heart of this.
"Shame on you, too, FAU, to even have someone like this on your payroll," Llodra, herself a former teacher and school administrator, told FoxNews.com in an email. "Professor Tracy is an embarrassment to me as an educator and should be to you as well. I can assure you, sadly, that the events here in Newtown unfolded exactly as are being reported, with the horrible outcome of the violent death of 26 innocent people, including 20 children.
"It is outrageous and an insult to all caring people to think that this man would chose this event as a stage for his outlandish conspiracy theories," she added, calling his statements "wrong, inconsiderate and insensitive."
...
"Haven't these parents and the community been hurt enough?" she asked.
Q: What do I need to do to keep my gun under the new law?I am not sure how you are disproving my point about people being forced to sell their private possessions, by explaining how people are forced to dispose of or sell their private possessions.
A: You must register with the State Police within a year — and pass a background check when you do — and then re-register every five years. A spokesman for the governor said you will not need to pay a fee to do so.
You could also sell the gun to a licensed retailer in the state, or someone out of state within the next year, provided you comply with the laws in that state and notify officials there. Otherwise, you will not be able to transfer the weapon — even to a family member.
Q: Can I still lawfully sell a rifle or a shotgun to someone in a private sale?
A: Yes, but you must now have a licensed firearm dealer perform a background check of your buyer. There’s an exception for the sale or gift of a rifle and shotgun between you and your spouse, domestic partner, child or stepchild.
AP/GfK Poll: Gun Control Poll: 6 in 10 Favor Stricter Gun Laws.posted by ericb at 12:18 PM on January 16 [2 favorites]
CNN/ Time Poll: CNN/Time Poll: Majority Approve Of Obama And Biden In Advance Of Gun Control Announcement.
The Washington Post/ABC News Poll: Half Of Americans Support New Gun Control Laws, Poll Shows.
Before the law’s passage, a magazine capable of holding 10 or more rounds was unlawful, but any magazine manufactured before 1994 was exempt. Law enforcement officials said this grandfathering provision made the ban difficult to enforce, and it was eliminated in the current law. Now those magazines are banned, but anyone who has one with a “reasonable belief” that it was lawful and disposes of it within 30 days of being notified by a law enforcement official that it is now illegal won’t be guilty of violating the law.
Q: What do I need to do to keep my gun under the new law?So this isn't totally your fault, because this guy is using pretty wibbly language. But how this reads to me is: You can keep your gun if you register it and pass a background check. However, if you cannot or do not wish to do this, you have to sell it within the next year. If you sell it, though, you either need to sell it to a gun dealer in-state, or someone out-state where it's legal. Even family members are not exempt from this - so you cannot give them pre-ban "assault weapons" if they live with you in New York State, because they don't have that exemption for prior possession.
A: You must register with the State Police within a year — and pass a background check when you do — and then re-register every five years. A spokesman for the governor said you will not need to pay a fee to do so.
You could also sell the gun to a licensed retailer in the state, or someone out of state within the next year, provided you comply with the laws in that state and notify officials there. Otherwise, you will not be able to transfer the weapon — even to a family member.
Q: Can I still lawfully sell a rifle or a shotgun to someone in a private sale?
A: Yes, but you must now have a licensed firearm dealer perform a background check of your buyer. There’s an exception for the sale or gift of a rifle and shotgun between you and your spouse, domestic partner, child or stepchild.
A Look Behind The Handgun Billboard on the Mass Pike Near Fenway Park.posted by ericb at 12:39 PM on January 16 [1 favorite]
Billboard Gallery (1995 - ).
Stop Handgun Violence Facebook Page.
“These are either standard exercises of presidential power, or even more benignly, standard examples of the power of the president to exhort the public or state officials to be aware of certain problems and to address them,” Charles Fried, who was Reagan’s solicitor general during his second term, told me today.posted by zombieflanders at 5:08 PM on January 16 [8 favorites]
Fried noted that some of the provisions are merely “use of the bully pulpit.” What he means is that provisions such as “launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign” and “challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies” to promote gun safety merely constitute the use of presidential stature to advocate. “If that’s an impeachable offense, then the president has just lost his first amendment rights,” Fried said.
Referring to provision number 11, Fried joked: “Is it an impeachable offense to nominate an ATF director?”
Fried noted that other provisions — such as directing the Attorney General to review categories of people prohibited from gun ownership, and addressing “unnecessary legal barriers” that prevent states from sharing info with the background check system — merely constitute a vow to review existing laws with an eye towards improving them. “How can there be anything offensive about the Attorney General reviewing existing legislation to see if there are any loopholes?” Fried asked.
Fried noted that still others — such as “provide law enforcement” with “proper training” for “active shooter situations” — were merely “vague” and “aspirational.”
Another one that’s bound to generate noise: “Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.” But the only thing that would make this controversial, as NBC News points out today, is the false belief that the health law outlaws this in the first place.
“Overreach would mean that the President is using a power he doesn’t have,” Fried concluded. “There’s nothing here that has to be understood in that way.”
A couple of hours after the last child left, a knock came on his door. It was a frantic mother who had heard that some children had taken refuge there. She was looking for her little boy.
"Her face looked frozen in terror," Rosen said, breaking down in tears.
"She thought maybe a miracle from God would have the child at my house," he said. Later, "I looked at the casualty list ... and his name was on it."
MuffinMan:And most of them stink."tl,dr: opinions are like arseholes; everyone has one.
This is a false quote, but bits and pieces of it still continue to crop up from time to time. Even national publications, such as Playboy magazine, have been snared by it. (Playboy published the "quote" in December 1995 as part of an article entitled "Once and for All: What the Founding Fathers Said About Guns". After consulting with an assistant editor of the George Washington Papers at the University of Virginia, Playboy published a lengthy correction in March 1996.) *posted by ericb at 9:01 AM on January 18
While still president in 1986, Reagan signed into law the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which was hailed by gun rights advocates because it included numerous protections for gun owners. However, it also banned ownership of any fully automatic rifles that were not already registered on the day the law was signed.posted by ericb at 9:18 AM on January 18 [3 favorites]
Then, in 1991, four years after the controversial Brady Bill was introduced in Congress and with passage again in doubt, Reagan penned an op-ed in The New York Times titled "Why I'm for the Brady Bill." In it, he expressed support for a seven-day waiting period before a purchaser could take possession of a handgun, an even more stringent restriction than the five-day cooling-off period that was included in the final legislation, and less stringent than the 15-day cooling-off period he signed into law as governor of California. Reagan stated that prohibitions on sales to felons, drug addicts and the mentally ill had "no enforcement mechanism" and that "a uniform standard across the country" was necessary.
Regarding handguns, Reagan stated, "This level of violence must be stopped. ... If the passage of the Brady bill were to result in a reduction of only 10 or 15 percent of those numbers (and it could be a good deal greater), it would be well worth making it the law of the land."
Finally, in 1994, Reagan successfully threw his support behind the Assault Weapons Ban in a joint letter to the Boston Globe, saying, "As a longtime gun owner and supporter of the right to bear arms . I am convinced that the limitations imposed in this bill are absolutely necessary." The ban on assault weapons had a sunset provision and lapsed in 2004, and many gun advocates have strongly opposed any attempts to pass it again, including after the Newtown massacre.
This exploratory study examines the act of mass murder as an attempt by the perpetrators to lay claim to a hegemonic masculine identity that has been damaged or denied them, yet that they feel entitled to as males in American culture.posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:44 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
Father of Newtown victim heckled at hearing, Ken Dixon, Connecticut Post, 28 January 2013
There were initial reports, right after the shooting, that police found the AR-15 in his car, NOT IN THE SCHOOL. The rifle was not used. The shooter went into the school with 4 handguns, NOT an Assault Rifle as the media has charged. I remember in the initial hours of this shooting, the Police said they found the rifle in the car. But the Administration-controlled MSM had a pre-planned attack already waiting, to ban so-called assault weapons and jumped on that line of reporting, knowing it was a lie, which included people like Piers Morgan who said the shooter used an AR-15 that shoots hundreds of rounds per minute, as if it were a machine gun.(With apologies to Charles P. Pierce.)
« Older In the English-speaking world... | CHIKARA Pro Wrestling is notab... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 5:22 AM on January 16 [24 favorites]